John 15:12Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

John 15:12

New King James Version (NKJV)

12. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved
you.

What is love?

1. Corinthians 13:4-7 New Living Translation (NLT)

4. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud

5. or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it
keeps no record of being wronged.

6. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth
wins out.

7. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures
through every circumstance.

This seems like a mighty tall order. Is this impossible?
Perhaps it is for us selfish, weak human beings, but not for God. If
we allow our hearts to be healed and surrendered to God and let His presence
move into those places we protect knowingly and unknowingly, then His love
that is without limit will pour in and through us in a way we could never
imagine. This is a love that He knew we could never attain without Him.

Our Creator created us with the desire for our complete dependence upon
Him, not just when we ďthinkĒ we need Him, but every moment of every day.
There is no other way to flow freely in His presence.

Notice that Jesus gave this most important command to love one another
just before He was crucified and rose to heaven leaving behind the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit was sent because God in His infinite wisdom
understood how He created us. We are but sheep that are easily led astray
without our Shepherdís help. We could not begin to love the way God
intended without Godís intervention. His love is holy; his love is
unconditional and just like there is only way to get to heaven, through
Jesus, there is only one way to love the way God intended and that is
through our baptism in the Holy Spirit. He commanded us to agape love
with the intention to manifest this ability in us and through us.

I donít know about you, but I need all the help I can get.

In a world where we are battered by the winds of opposition and
oppression, we need Godís Holy Spirit to help us love in a way that is
beyond our capabilities as human beings. This is the love that makes
us, as Christians, different. This is the love that draws people to
God.

So the challenge is to get out of Godís way as He heals and changes your
heart. Spread out your spiritual and emotional arms and say to God, ďDo in
me everything you need to do, so that through me, You can do anything you
want to doĒ. Godís greatest desire is to move His love throughout the world
through us, His vessels.

The
purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate,
and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through
Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord
require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your
God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or
crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the
standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for
the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not
Christian.

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